united nations

On Monday, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, detailing the killing of civilians, rape, trafficking of women and children, and other atrocities that took place in Iraq between September and December 2014. Many of the abuses committed by ISIS (which the U.N. refers to as ISIL, another term used to describe the terrorist group) "may amount to war crimes," according to the report, and the group's specific targeting of religious and ethnic minorities, including Turkmen, Shabaks, Christians, and Yezidi, could constitute genocide. Yezidi women wait in a health center in Iraq after being held by ISIL militants for more than five months. There is an entire section that includes anecdotal evidence from women who have experienced or witnessed the sexual abuse by ISIL militants—including the rape of children. "ISIL continues to perpetrate gross violations of the rights of women, subjecting women and children (both male and female) to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), particularly those from diverse religious and ethnic communities, particularly the Yezidi...," reads the report. "Women also face severe restrictions on other rights, including freedom of read more

Every year, Thanksgiving marks the unofficial beginning of the winter holiday season here in the United States—and it's a good time to step back and take stock of everything we have, all that we're grateful for, and hopes for our near futures. It's also a time of year that lends itself to social awareness—volunteering, donating to charities, remembering those less fortunate. Today is the official International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. It's a designated day that's hugely important, and on the United Nations website, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon issued the following statement, which I feel is an important read and reminder of what women are up against all over the world every day. Here it is, in full, with emphasis added throughout.Sexual and gender-based violence is the most extreme form of the global and systemic inequality experienced by women and girls. It knows no geographic, socioeconomic, or cultural boundaries. Worldwide, one in three women will suffer physical or sexual violence at some point in her life, from rape and domestic violence to harassment at work and bullying on the Internet.This year alone, more than 200 girls have been kidnapped in Nigeria; we have seen graphic testimony from Iraqi read more

Despite international efforts to save the life of Reyhaneh Jabbari, a young Iranian woman who was arrested in 2007 for killing a man in what she described as self-defense, the 26-year-old was executed in a Tehran prison on Saturday. "The shocking news that Reyhaneh Jabbari has been executed is deeply disappointing in the extreme," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme, in a press release. "This is another bloody stain on Iran's human rights record." Before her death, Jabbari had many supporters on social media, and more than 241,000 people had signed a petition calling for her release. The cover photo for the Facebook page created for Jabbari now reads, "Rest in Peace, Reyhaneh." Reyhaneh Jabbari was sentenced to death in 2009. Jabbari, an interior designer, reportedly killed Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a physician who formerly worked for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, after he hired her to redesign his office and then tried to sexually assault her. According to the UN Office for Human Rights, reliable sources confirmed that when Jabbari arrived to start her work, Sarbandi instead "took her to his residence where he physically and sexually assaulted her." Jabbari allegedly read more

On Sunday, just two days before the UN Climate Summit to address the very real problems being created by climate change, roughly 400,000 people (four times the expected turnout) swarmed the streets of New York City to demand meaningful action from world leaders. And, as someone who was there, I can say it was pretty incredible. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jane Goodall, Mark Ruffalo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Al Gore, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marched alongside a sea of protestors in Manhattan, who held up signs that said things like "Don't Be Frackin' Crazy" and "#DisruptDenial." Despite the serious nature of the issue at hand, the mood of the march was joyful and the crowd seemed to swell with a sense of history-in-the-making. With more than 2,600 related events in over 150 countries, it was by far the largest global call for climate action ever. May Boeve, executive director of march's primary organizer 350.org, said in a press release: "Today, civil society acted at a scale that outdid even our own wildest expectations. Tomorrow, we expect our political leaders to do the same." Check out a few of our favorite signs from the march: read more

Earlier this year, the United Nations named Emma Watson as UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador as part of the UN's HeForShe campaign promoting gender equality. Watson, who recently graduated from Brown University, has been an outspoken feminist in the past—and now, in her new role, the actress is advocating for women and girls. In one of her first official duties, Watson recently spoke at the UN headquarters in New York City, addressing why men, as well as women, should call themselves feminists. "Gender equality is your issue too," she told the men in the audience. She continued: "I've seen men made fragile and insecure by the distorted sense of what constitutes male success.... Men don't have the benefits of equality either." Watson also spoke about the challenges women are still facing around the world: "...I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I am should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved, on my behalf, in the policies and the decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded read more

With so much focus on conflict in the Middle East and parts of Africa, it can be all too easy to forget, or not even be aware of, very real dangers women are facing in other parts of the world. Take, for instance, Colombia, where an estimated 5.7 million people have been uprooted by ongoing conflict over the country's lucrative (and extremely dangerous) drug smuggling routes. As a result of the violence, Colombia trails only Syria in its number of internally displaced persons globally—and according to the United Nations, 20 percent of women who have fled the country did so out of fear of sexual violence. With women making up just over half of Colombia's displaced population, this is no small number. Worse, Colombian women continue to be used as tools of warfare among armed groups in the country and are raped, tortured, and sometimes killed as a means for fighters to exert control and/or exact revenge on rivals. Victims are often left with few resources following an attack, many too fearful to report crimes to authorities. And so, with yet another instance of women suffering from a conflict in which they have no direct part, perhaps it isn't surprising read more

Describing the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council, Elizabeth Gore, resident entrepreneur at the UN Foundation, explains that it is "comprised of entrepreneurs who are as equally passionate about building a better business as building a better world." It was this council that sent an inspiring group of women to Uganda to meet entrepreneurs and innovators working in the country toward that very goal. Global Entrepreneurs Council members join the Young Mothers Club on Bussi Island. This group started a business that makes and sells liquid soap, floor mats, brooms, and baked goods. I spoke with several of the women who joined this amazing trip to find out what surprised them and heard about the lessons they learned from women starting their own businesses in Uganda. Ingrid Vanderveldt, resident entrepreneur at Dell, Tina Wells, founder of Buzz Marketing Group, and Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods, all members of the GEC, shared their biggest takeaways from the trip. If you're not sure where to start, look around you. "[The women entrepreneurs I met in Uganda] really took advantage of their resources and created the products that made the most sense for their customer base, whether it was soap or doughnuts," read more